1.

(a) Six characteristics of a USB (Universal Serial Bus)

i. It is bi-directional bus
ii. It has high performance whereby it offers data transfer speed at upto 4,8 Gbps
iii. Supports hot plugging and insertion
iv. Distributes power to all connected devices eliminating the need for an external
power source for low power devices
v. Cable has two wires for power (+5 volts and ground) and a twisted pair of
wires to carry the data.
vi. Standard adds four more wires for data transmission. While USB 2.0 can only
send data in one direction at a time (downstream or upstream), USB 3.0 can
transmit data in both directions simultaneously
(b) Explain how the power idle mode and power down mode reduces power
consumption in the 8051 microcontroller
The IDL bit of the PCON register is set, the microcontroller turns off the
greatest power consumer- CPU unit while peripheral units such as serial port,
timers and interrupt system continue operating normally consuming 6.5mA. In
Idle mode, the state of all registers and I/O ports remains unchanged. To exit
the Idle mode and make the microcontroller operate normally, it is necessary to
enable and execute any interrupt or reset. It will cause the IDL bit to be
automatically cleared and the program resumes operation from instruction
having set the IDL bit. It is recommended that first three instructions to execute
now are NOP instructions. They don't perform any operation but provide some
time for the microcontroller to stabilize and prevents undesired changes on the
I/O ports while the Power down mode reduces power by By setting the PD bit
of the PCON register from within the program, the microcontroller is set to
Power down mode, thus turning off its internal oscillator and reduces power
consumption enormously. The microcontroller can operate using only 2V power
supply in power- down mode, while a total power consumption is less than
40uA. The only way to get the microcontroller back to normal mode is by reset.
While the microcontroller is in Power Down mode, the state of all SFR registers
and I/O ports remains unchanged. By setting it back into the normal mode, the
 contents of the SFR register is lost, but the content of internal RAM is saved.
Reset signal must be long enough, approximately 10mS, to enable stable
operation of the quartz oscillator.

(c) Using an example of a microcontroller of your choice explain why it is a build

in system compared to a microprocessor system
CPU, RAM, ROM, I/O and timer are all on a single chip in a microcontroller while in
the microprocessor they are separate. A microcontroller has fixed amount of on-chip
ROM, RAM, I/O ports and for applications in which cost, power and space are
critical. Single-purpose (control-oriented). It has low processing power and low
power consumption. It is mostly found in 8 or 16 bit. It typically single-cycle or two-
stage pipeline. Lastly, it is a heart of embedded systems while in a microprocessor the
designer can decide on the amount of ROM, RAM and I/O ports. It is expensive and
used for general-purpose. It has high processing power and high power consumption.
It is typically found in 32 or 64 bits. It allows deep pipeline (5-20 stages). Lastly, it is
a heart of Computer systems.
2. (a) Briefly explain the following types of embedded system memory
i. OTPROM
- Means one time programmable read only memory. It has very high storage
permanence that is bits do not change unless reconnected to programmer
and more fuses blown. It is commonly used in final products which are
cheaper, harder to inadvertently modify. The user provides file of desired
contents of ROM. The file input to machine called ROM programmer.
ii. EEPROM
- It means Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory. It
is erased typically by using higher than normal voltage. It can program
and erase individual words unlike the EPROMs where exposure to the UV
light erases everything.
iii. RDRAM
- It means Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory. More of a bus
interface architecture than DRAM architecture and data is latched on both
rising and falling edge of clock. It is broken into 4 banks each with own
 row decoder. It can have 4 pages open at a time and capable of very high
throughput.
iv. FPMDRAM
- Fast Page Mode DRAM (FPM DRAM) gives higher performance than
other DRAM types through focusing on fast page access.
v. Flash memory
- It is an extension of EEPROM. It has the same floating gate principle and
same write ability and storage permanence. It can be erased at a faster rate
i.e. large blocks of memory erased at once, rather than one word at a time.

(b) Five design metrics considered when designing an embedded system.

1. NRE cost (Non-Recurring Engineering cost): The one-time monetary cost of
designing the system
2. Size: the physical space required by the system
3. Performance: the execution time or throughput of the system
4. Power: the amount of power consumed by the system
5. Flexibility: the ability to change the functionality of the system without incurring
heavy NRE cost.
(c) Give and explain five major characteristics of an embedded system
1. Single-functioned - An embedded system usually performs a specialized operation and
does the same repeatedly. For example: A pager always functions as a pager
2. Tightly constrained - It must be of a size to fit on a single chip, must perform fast
enough to process data in real time and consume minimum power to extend battery life.
3. Reactive and Real time - systems must continually react to changes in the system's
environment and must compute certain results in real time without any delay.

4. Memory − It must have a memory, as its software usually embeds in ROM. It does not
need any secondary memories in the computer.
5. Connected − It must have connected peripherals to connect input and output devices